It won’t have dragged on at Alpine. Barely 24 hours after the announcement of Fernando Alonso’s departure from Aston Martin next season, the French team announced the name of his replacement on Tuesday. This is the Australian Oscar Piastri. “In accordance with the team’s commitments to the Australian, Oscar will be promoted to racing driver and will take over the wheel of Fernando Alonso from next year,” Alpine said in a statement.
Aged 21, Piastri had been appointed reserve driver at Alpine at the start of 2022 and therefore logically appeared as Alonso’s designated successor. Piastri cut his teeth with the French team, joining the Alpine academy in 2019 on the heels of his Formula Renault Eurocup title. The Australian won the Formula 3 championship the following season, then the Formula 2 championship in 2021, before becoming a reserve driver for the French team at the start of 2022.
Piastri “more than ready”, according to the boss
Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer assured Piastri was “more than ready to move into Formula 1”. “Oscar is a brilliant and rare talent. We are proud to have nurtured and supported him throughout his career in extremely high-level promotion formulas,” he said. With Esteban Ocon, present in the French team since 2020, when it was still called Renault, Piastri will form the Alpine tandem, currently 4th in the constructors’ classification.
“Together, we believe this duo will give us the continuity we need to achieve our long-term goal of fighting for wins and titles,” Szafnauer said. The promotion of Piastri within Alpine also confirms a generational shift for the French team, since the Australian will recover the wheel of Alonso who, at 41, is almost twice his age.